Eliot Spitzer advises Geraldo Rivera on ‘selfie’

Former New York Governor Eliot Spitzer offered some advice to Geraldo Rivera on Monday, telling him the public will “forgive him” for tweeting a now-deleted half-naked photo of himself over the weekend.

“The public will not only forgive you but they will say move on, because, and this is where the reservoir of good will comes from, you have been the journalist who focuses on the tough issues, no one agrees with you all the time but I’ve said before, when it comes back to the issue of care for those who are disabled, for the weakest and poorest and most vulnerable in our society, you did something that is so overwhelmingly important that that reservoir of goodwill carried through,” Spitzer, who is running for New York City comptroller, said on Rivera’s radio show.

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“I’m in such an odd position commenting on this,” Spitzer said. “We’re held to a higher standard…when you’re in an elected office it’s an even higher office, that’s why I resigned and took five years to reflect.”

Spitzer, who resigned as governor of New York five years ago after it was revealed he had hired prostitutes and tried to conceal the amounts of money he was transferring by wire, said he and his wife are still married but that their “private lives are our private lives.”

Rivera said he tweeted the shirtless photo of himself because he was bored after a few drinks late Saturday night.

“The governor speaks of hubris, when you churn life for boredom, ambition or you just can’t stand to have things organized and quiet, you create a tumult in your life, and there I was 2:30 in the morning,” Rivera said. “I’m sitting around, I had a drink, and I had taken that picture on Saturday morning, and I was looking at it and I just said to myself: ‘You know what, I gotta tweet this thing.’”

“I look pretty good for a 70-year-old, and I think because I’m so old people will cut me some slack. They won’t take it too seriously,” Rivera continued.